Law Enforcement Shift Schedules: Results of a 2005 Random National Survey of Police Agencies

Karen L. Amendola Edwin E. Hamilton Laura A. Wyckoff

Washington, DC

The Police Foundation is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting innovation and improvement in policing Established in 1970, the foundation has conducted seminal research in police behavior, policy, and procedure, and works to transfer to local agencies the best new information about practices for dealing effectively with a range of important police operational and administrative concerns. Motivating all of the foundations efforts is the goal of efficient, humane policing that operates within the framework of democratic principles and the highest ideals of the nation. 2005 by the Police Foundation. All rights, including translation into other languages, reserved under the Universal Copyright Convention, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, and the International and Pan American Copyright Conventions. For information about using Police Foundation copyrighted material, please visit www.policefoundation.org/docs/copyright.html. May 2006 Revised: November 2011 Police Foundation 1201 Connecticut Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036-2636 (202) 833-1460 (202) 659-9149 fax E-mail: pfinfo@policefoundation.org www.policefoundation.org

This project was supported in part by award 2005-FS-BX-0057 from the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view or opinions contained in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

This report and others from the Police Foundation shift length experiment are available at www.policefoundation.org/shiftexperiment/.

Introduction Many police agencies throughout the U.S. have adopted variations on the traditional five-day, eight-hour/day work schedule. Compressed schedules (longer hours over fewer days weekly) have become increasingly attractive to both police agencies and police personnel for a variety of reasons. However, there is no known national source that indicates the extent to which compressed schedules have been implemented. Therefore, as part of a larger study about the impact of various shift schedules on safety, health, performance, and quality of life,1 the Police Foundation conducted a random phone survey of police agencies. The purposes of this phone survey, conducted in November, 2005, were to determine the proportion of agencies having various shift schedules (e.g., 8-, 10-, or 12-hours in length) for their field patrol officers and the extent to which agencies still employed rotating shifts. Methodology The sample was drawn from the 2000 Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics). A total of 300 county, township, and municipal (city, town) police departments with 50 or more sworn members were randomly selected. There were 289 respondents (96.3%); eleven agencies did not respond to repeated phone calls during the week of the survey, and two others were excluded from the analysis due to the fact that they had fewer than 50 sworn members at the time, resulting in 287 cases for final analysis. A total of 57.1% of the total 289 respondents were from smaller agencies (between 50 and 100 sworn officers), 28.4% were from mid-sized agencies (101 to 200 sworn officers), and 13.8% were from larger agencies (201 sworn members or more) as shown in Table 1. Table 1. Respondents Based on Agency Size Number of Responding Number Sworn Officers
Agencies (%)

< 50 50 to 100 (small) 101 to 200 (medium) 201 + (large) Total

2 (0.7) 165 (57.1) 82 (28.4) 40 (13.8) 289 (100)

Eleven (3.7%) of the 300 sampled agencies did not respond to the survey.

The Shift Length Experiment: What We Know About 8-, 10-, and 12-Hour Shifts in Policing, is available at www.policefoundation.org/shiftexperiment/.
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Results Shift Length As illustrated in Table 2, the most prevalent shift length across all agency sizes was the traditional, 8-hour shift (40.1%), followed by the 10-hour shift (27.2%) and 12-hour shift (24%). Additionally, our survey showed that a small proportion of agencies (5.9%) do employ multiple shift lengths for their patrol officers. Perhaps not surprisingly, less traditional schedules like 9hour and 11-hour workdays were very uncommon, less than 3% overall. Shift Length by Agency Size As shown in Table 2, the 10-hour shift was most common (35%) in the larger agencies, although the 8-hour shift was employed almost as often (32.5%). While 12-hour shifts are increasingly attractive to many, our survey suggests that they are most likely to be implemented in smaller agencies; 28.5% of smaller agencies have adopted such schedules, whereas just 19.5% of the medium and 15% of the larger departments have done so.2 Finally, the adoption of multiple shifts was most common in the larger agencies (12.5%) as shown in Table 2, possibly due to the greater flexibility of having more staff. Table 2. Distribution of Shift Length by Agency Size Number 8 HR 9 HR 10 HR 11 HR Agencies Agencies Agencies Agencies Sworn (%) (%) (%) (%) Officers 68 3 37 -50 to 100 (41.2) (2.0) (22.4) (small) 101 to 200 (medium) 201 + (large) Total
a

12 HR
Agencies (%)

Multiple a
Agencies (%)

Total 165 (58.5) 82 (28.6) 40 (13.9) 287

47 (28.5) 16 (19.5) 6 (15.0) 69 (24.0)

10 (6.1) 2 (2.4) 5 (12.5) 17 (5.9)

34 (41.5) 13 (32.5) 115 (40.1)

2 (2.4) -5 (1.7)

27 (32.9) 14 (35.0) 78 (27.2)

1 (1.2) 2 (5.0) 3 (1.0)

Agency has a combination of shift lengths (8-, 9-, 10-, 11-, and/or 12-hour shifts)

Actual shift lengths were reported by departments, and we applied rounding as follows: schedules of 7.5 to 8.4 hours were classified as 8-hour tours; 8.5 to 9.4 hour tours were considered 9-hour shifts; 9.5 to 10.4 were considered 10-hour shifts; 10.5 to 11.4 were considered 11-hour tours; 11.5 to 12.4 were considered 12-hour shifts; and those with 12.5 to 13.4 were considered 13-hour shifts. There were no agencies who reported schedules of 13.5 or more hours.
________________________________________________________________________________________________ Law Enforcement Shift Schedules: Police Foundation Results of a 2005 Random National Survey of Police Agencies Page 4

Shift Rotation We were surprised to find that the use of rotating shifts is still employed to a significant extent (46%), as shown in Table 3. However, shift rotation is most common among the smaller agencies (52.1%), and is less common among larger agencies (41.5% for mid-sized agencies, and just 30% for larger agencies). Furthermore, when considering shift rotation by agency size, fixed 8-hour shifts are most common for both small and medium agencies (see Table 4). However, for the larger agencies, there was an equal proportion of both fixed 8-hour and fixed 10-hour shifts (25% each). Table 3. Distribution of Shift Type by Agency Size Fixed Shift Rotating Shift Number Sworn Officers 50 to 100 (small) 101 to 200 (medium) 201 + (large) Totals
Agencies (%) Agencies (%)

Total
Agencies (%)

79 (47.9) 48 (58.5) 28 (70.0) 155 (54.0)

86 (52.1) 34 (41.5) 12 (30.0) 132 (46.0)

165 (58.5) 82 (28.6) 40 (13.9) 287 (100)

Table 4. Distribution of Shift Length and Type by Agency Size Shift Length Number Shift 11 HR 12 HR Multiple a 8 HR 9 HR 10 HR Sworn Type Agencies Agencies Agencies Agencies Agencies Agencies Officers (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) 3 39 1 18 18 Fixed -(1.8) (23.6) (<1.0) (10.9) (10.9) 50 to 100
(small)

Total

165

Rotating
101 to 200 (medium)

29 (17.6) 20 (24.4) 14 (17.1) 10 (25.0) 3 (7.5)

2 (1.2) 1 (1.2) 1 (1.2) ---

19 (11.5) 17 (20.7) 10 (12.2) 10 (25.0) 4 (10.0)

-1 (1.2) -1 (2.5) 1 (2.5)

29 (17.6) 8 (9.8) 8 (9.8) 5 (12.5) 1 (2.5)

Fixed Rotating

7 (4.2) 1 (1.2) 82 1 (1.2) 2 (5.0) 40 3 (7.5)

201 + (large)
a

Fixed Rotating

Agency has a combination of shift lengths (8-, 9-, 10-, 11-, and 12-hour shifts)

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